one word at a time

Well, it's been absolutely ages since I last posted. The new year went well but I spent most of the first week working from home because I couldn't get the car out of our street. It was great for dog walking, not so much for driving; but, the snow (and more importantly the ice) is now melting. When I parked the car at work this morning it was raining and foggy so I imagine the news will start saying things like "The Big [British] Melt as opposed to Freeze.

Yesterday was slightly traumatic; first I had to have a new car windscreen because there was a large crack across the middle of mine. Then I had to take Baby Bear and Mama Bear to the vets; the former for his boosters and the latter for her free six monthly check (it's not really 'free' - I pay a monthly amount so I don't have to pay when I turn up.) Baby Bear was fine; he didn't cry for the needle and the vet thought he looked very fit and healthy. Mama Bear has put on 5 kilos and is on rations, but because she's overweight we're going to have to alter her exercise regimen to avoid damaging her joints. No long walks, instead she'll have a number of shorter (no longer than 30 minutes) each day. The vet said it'll be the rationing rather than the exercise that will drop the weight off her, so I'll have to get the parentals who dog-sit to make sure she can't eat the other dogs' food and I'll have to remember to hide the cat biscuits when I go out/ go to bed. She will not be happy, but it's all in a good cause.

This weekend I'm aiming to get my Lovecraftian-style short finished - I did about 1K yesterday - and then I'll be free to re-read the YA UF novel so far and crack on with that again.

If you're driving/ walking anywhere that is still plague with snow and ice - take care!

Current Mood:chipper

Current Location:Orthanc

Current Music:The Decision to Turn Around - The Perfect Storm: James Horner

December is here, the start of winter, and to get it off to a good start we had the first hard frost of the season this morning which meant that I froze my hands scraping the car windows.It was dark when I set off to work but as the sun rose and turned the sky pink, the frosty ground looked gorgeous. I wish I'd stopped at the side of the road and taken a picture of it; it was glorious.

What wasn't glorious was the black ice that I'd forgotten would be on the rat-run to the motorway. Hairpin bends on a steep hill past farmers' fields where there's runoff onto the road. Luckily, because I usually forget not to go on that road in winter at least once a year, I've become accustomed to steering off ice. Also, there was no-one coming the other way which was a bonus. Unless it rains I'll be going the long way until March.

With it being December the first I have the joy of a carol service at work today (as in, I will be singing in it) which will be nice. Rehearsal at lunchtime and then the service at 17:00hrs GMT. Hopefully we'll be singing all the jolly carols rather than weepy ones. Normally I miss the service because it's always on a Tuesday and I work 'til 21:00hrs then, but this year I swapped, so we shall see how it goes.

NaNo Update: did I win? No. Did I progress? Yes, absolutely. I've added two characters I hadn't planned on in the initial outline and I think I've managed to push them into the shadows a bit for this story. They're there, but they won't elbow their way to the front as they were starting to for a minute. Hakon and Snorri will just have to wait for a different story to take their spot in the limelight.